During the first week of November, approximately 20 members of our community, including Band Office staff and a group of students from the Eke Me-xi School, had a chance to learn about working better with groups. The trainings were on Deep Democracy, a facilitation method from South Africa that focuses on making decisions together and honouring the wisdom of each person. They were held at the Elders’ Centre and led by Aftab Erfan, a graduate student from the University of British Columbia, who is helping us implement some of the CCP action items.
Here is a taste of the ideas covered in the workshops and the discussions we had:
Whenever a group (a family, a class, a business, a community, a society) comes together, often one or a few people make decisions on behalf of everybody else without consulting them. We may call these people “leaders” at first, but when they get too far removed from the rest of the group they begin to be more like “kings”. Inevitably, when there is a “king” making all the decisions, others who don’t have a voice begin to feel left out and upset. They may start to go against the king’s orders – first quietly (through jokes, gossip etc) and then more loudly (through strikes, attacks etc). A wise king, or an effective leader, is one who recognizes the wisdom that every individual in the group has and tries to include that wisdom in the decision making. When everybody feels like they have a voice, then they work with the leader instead of working against the leader.
During one workshop, we talked about leadership in the G&N community. Most participants felt that it’s important to improve communications between the leaders and community members, so that we avoid having the “king ruling over his subjects”.
Most participants also agreed that as community members we need to hold our leaders accountable and step up to take part in conversations about how the community is run. Part of holding ourselves accountable as community members is to be more thoughtful and engaged when we elect our leaders: we need to elect people whom we know and trust, but also people who are qualified and competent and have leadership qualities. (Think about this as you go to the polls for the Band Council by-election in a couple of weeks!)
One of the best things about the workshop was having a mix of youth and adults together. The young people struggled at times to participate in the political conversation and were feeling left out and bored. But half-way through the workshop we used democracy to vote on how we should proceed. Using the wisdom of the entire group we voted to start talking about our hopes and dreams, and to bring the conversation to a level that could engage everyone.
This shifted the dynamics of the group. Some people had to leave, but those who stayed became much more enthusiastically engaged in the conversation.
As we talked about our hopes and dreams for the future several themes emerged. One idea that several people shared was to put some basketball hoops in the Community Hall so that young people can reach their dreams of becoming exceptional basketball players. We talked about how we might go about doing a simple project like this without playing “king” and leaving out parts of the community. (After all, we all know that when people feel excluded and resentful they are capable of ripping up the new flooring in the Hall!) Here are some ideas that emerged, most of which the students are able to take on:
Ideas for achieving our dream of putting basketball hoops in the Hall:
- Writing a letter requesting support from the Band Office
- Developing a Hall policy that reflects everyone’s needs
- Having individual conversations with community (including youth) about their needs and use of the Hall
- Conducting a door-to-door survey
- Looking into past initiatives: what has been done already
- Holding Chief and Council responsible for making decisions
- Creating a Youth Council that helps advocate for the interests of young people and that become a model for good governance
We left the workshop energized by the idea of a Youth Council, and the potential for young people to become leaders. In light of what we learned in this workshop, we all recognized that collaboration is important and it is difficult. The emerging Youth Council has challenges to meet, but it also has the possibility to make a better future for the G&N community: one little basketball hoop dream at a time!
